Click here for a replay of the race and the post-race interview with winning connections.

Brendan Walsh (winning trainer of Verstappen)

“We’ve always liked him. As he was going to get older, we always thought he’d get better. He made great progress over the winter. Declan (Cannon) rode him to perfection. I’m delighted for him. He does a lot of work for me, rides a lot of my work, so it’s a great reward. The guys that own the horse (Richard Brodie of Andrew Farm, Mike Morgan of For the People Racing Stable and Rick Imbert of Windmill Manor Farm) are huge supporters of mine, and my own team at home … it’s just a great team effort all around. Coming in here, we said if he ran well today, if he ran in the first three, it would open a big door for him, so I think anything from a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half, I think he’s still going to get better and better. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him yet.”

Declan Cannon (winning rider)

“Brendan didn’t give me much instruction: just to ride him with confidence. I know the horse pretty well. I had a lovely smooth trip. I just had him relax, and he gave me a big run. He really got the trip well and we had no issues. It was very smooth. (Following Red Knight), he dragged me into the race nice but, like I say, my horse traveled so good and I was just able to ride him with a lot of confidence. I knew the mile-and-a-half would be perfect. When he turned in, he started reaching for the lead and stretched all the way to the line. He did what I expected.”

Gerardo Corrales (rider of runner-up Red Knight)

“I had a good trip. When I asked him to run, he responded and at the end I thought I had won by a nose. We were fighting and the horse didn’t let up, but the race was very close.”

Jareth Loveberry (rider of third-place finisher Another Mystery)

“I had a beautiful trip, I was able to save ground both turns, just had a really good trip. Just ran third.” 

Flavien Prat (rider of sixth-place finisher and beaten favorite Howe Street)

“I was in a good position. He became really keen when he got in front of the Grandstand. I let him run around the turn trying to get him to drop the bridle and relax. He was running pretty aggressively, so from that point he couldn’t accelerate.”